Modern Muddiest Point: the use of polling apps to enhance classroom dialogues in
Modern Muddiest Point: the use of polling apps to enhance classroom dialogues in large groups
Dr Jo Richardson
What is the idea?
The use of interactive polling technology to assess students’ learning is a quick and easy way to engage students in developing their metacognition in large lectures or other classes, particularly where it is otherwise challenging to implement flipped or active learning.
Why this idea?
This is a very easy way of making large group classes interactive. By combining polling technology (e.g. Poll Everywhere) with the metacognitive technique known as the “Muddiest Point”, you can gather real-time student feedback on their own learning.
The Muddiest Point asks students to identify what they find most unclear (“muddy”) or confusing about what they are learning:
“Regular use of the Muddiest Point in classrooms, which requires only a few minutes, sets a tone that confusion is a part of learning and that articulating confusions is not done solely to inform the instructor, but also to inform students themselves; students can use identified confusions to drive their independent learning or to generate dialogue” (Tanner, 2012, p. 116).
Polling technology has proved popular with both students and lecturers and has positive effects on student engagement and learning (Rose, 2019).
Students can enter their responses via an anonymous online poll, quickly and clearly informing the instructor about their learning. No special equipment is required: students can use their own mobiles or laptops.
Running these interactive polls over several lectures creates a classroom dialogue around topics that are interesting or challenging, even in a large cohort in which students are otherwise intimidated from asking questions. Additionally, it can be used to feed forward to later lectures, and ask students questions which test their prior learning.
How could others implement this idea?
These instructions are for Poll Everywhere, which is a popular platform with both students and instructors (Shon & Smith, 2011), but any polling technology can be used. Most of them allow a limited number of users for free. For larger groups you may need a paid subscription: check what your University offers.
Generally, this method is effective if deployed e.g. in a didactic lecture, at a suitable point. This could be the beginning (e.g. covering topics from a previous class), the middle (e.g. discussing a topic just covered in the class before moving onto a different topic), or at the end (e.g. consolidating the content of the class).
Preparation before class (5 minutes)
Set up the poll in advance of the class. If using Poll Everywhere, login and follow their guidelines, which are very simple, but there’s a detailed written instructor guide here if you need it: https://www.polleverywhere.com/instructor-guide
In your account, click “+Activity” to generate a new poll. For the Muddiest Point, I recommend selecting the “Q&A” option. This allows students to enter freeform te